Silver Cities
The Silver Cities, also known as the Silver League or the League of the Silver Cities, is the second kingdom of magic and home of the Wizards in Ashan. It was established after the Purge of the Necromancers and the Civil war in the Seven Cities which destroyed the ancient cities of the former kingdom, the Seven Cities. History Foundation and rise In 751 YSD, the Wizards of the Seven Cities, the first kingdom of magic, became jealous of the political power the Necromancers had acquired during the Rise of the Necromancers between 610 and 660 YSD. A large-scale persecution was initiated and the Wizards seized the Necromancer's properties and some were banished from the kingdom. There were even public executions which resulted in to a long and gruesome civil war - the Civil war of the Seven Cities. The new king, Alaron of Irollan, provided aid to the Wizards in 756 YSD in their wars against the Necromancers. At the end of the war, in 770 YSD, the ancient cities are destroyed and much of the southern deserts are rendered uninhabitable. The surviving Wizards established the Silver Cities, the second kingdom of magic, in 771 YSD after the destruction of the Seven Cities. Sometime after the foundation of the Silver Cities the Archmage Cyrus became First of the Circle - leader of the Circle of the Nine, the governing body of the kingdom and he was also proclaimed king at some point. The Wider World During the War of the Broken Staff between 813 and 822 YSD the Necromancers, who had fled to Heresh after the civil war, tried to crush the Silver Cities but the Wizards was victorious and invaded Heresh and the kingdom of Necromancy was shattered. Cyrus was the one who ordered the attack and was aided by Mad King Oleg and they send their troops to Lorekeep were they destroyed the town and killed the Necromancer Sandro, Markal's mentor and master. Later, when Markal was banished from the Griffin Imperial court by King Alexei Griffin IV and Godric Unicorn, Cyrus and his fellow mages helped them because of Markal’s schemes and treacheries. Cyrus also managed to obtain the Vampire’s Garment which originally belonged to the exiled Markal and separated the various items in different locations within the Silver Cities. The Blade of Binding was a sword that gave the wielder the power to control Demons and was created after the 4th Blood Moon Eclipse in 843 YSD. A few individuals were sworn to protect the sword and one of them, named Lady Delara, came from and represented the Silver Cities. Azh Rafir, a citizen of the Silver Cities and husband of Delara, tried to obtain this sword in 929 YSD to release Kha-Beleth from the prison world of Sheogh and in the search for it one of his Demon servants, Axexes, killed Delara. Nadia, Azh Rafir’s daughter with Delara, managed to defeat him with the help of Cyrus, Anwen, Godric, Fiona, and Aidan, and she destroyed the Blade of Binding afterwards. Some time after the incident Nadia married and had a child together with Cyrus, which they named Zehir. In 951 YSD after the 5th Blood Moon Eclipse the Demons, led by Kha-Beleth, appeared in Ashan and were confronted by the Grey Alliance - a coalition led by King Alexei of the Holy Griffin Empire, King Alaron of Irollan and First of the Circle Cyrus of the Silver Cities. During the end of the war Alaron and Cyrus hesitated in the final attack against the Demons who had been pushed back at the gates of Ur-Hekal in Sheogh. Without their aid Alexei pushed forward but this decision led to his death along with his household knights. This conflict was to be known as the War of the Grey Alliance or War of the Eclipse. Queen Isabel's War Sometime after 5th Eclipse Cyrus brilliance begun to fade as a huge ego and tendency to avarice started to emerge but he was still a powerful mage. This was one of the reasons that he laughed at the request of aid against the Demon invasion in the Holy Griffin Empire by Godric and his daughter Freyda Unicorn. This was because of his involvement in the previous war and that Cyrus refused to follow King Alexei in the final battle in Sheogh. As the Wizard don’t believe in the Dragon gods and the devotion to them he also laughed at the empire’s piety to Elrath. When the Demon invasion in 969 YSD continued in the Holy Griffin Empire the Necromancer Markal tried to reach the empire to take advantage of the situation and travelled across the lands of the Silver Cities to achieve his goal. After that Markal had allied himself with Queen Isabel Greyhound to resurrect the fallen King Nicolai Griffin and needed the Vampire’s Garment for the ritual. Together with the Holy Griffin Empire, Markal proclaimed war against the Silver Cities to regain his old belongings and get revenge on Cyrus. Isabel’s also had another reason for the war between them which was the betrayal that Cyrus had insulted their realm and refused to aid them against the Demons. The wars goes poorly for the Wizards; first they lost the old Necromancer city Lorekeep located near the border of the Holy Griffin Empire and then Markal and his Undead forces landed on the shores of the Silver Cities’ mainland. After a couple of fierce battles the Wizards lost the cities of Hikm, Bahiyaa and Sihaam and Markal was then able to obtain all pieces but one of the Vampire’s Garment. The last one, the Ring of the Unrepentant, was located in the Silver Cities capital, Al Safir, in the possession of Cyrus. Markal pushed his troops forward and crushed the last defences of the Silver Cities and reached Al Safir but Cyrus managed to escape before the siege. Cyrus used the Ring of the Unrepentant to teleport himself to the magical reality of the ring. Markal sieged the capital and followed Cyrus where he looked for the Archmage in the vast labyrinths of the mystic realm until he found him. An epic battle between Cyrus’ and Markal’s armies started but Cyrus could not hold on for long and after his last soldier fell, Markal killed him. After the defeat of Cyrus, Markal returned to Queen Isabel and Godric. With the Vampire’s Garment now intact Markal was able to begin the ritual to resurrect King Nicolai. Godric then begun to have a change of heart and didn’t trust Markal which led to that he fell back and fortified at Hikm, taking a part of the Vampire’s Garment with him. Hikm fell shortly afterwards and Godric was spared by Isabel. The Silver Cities was now mainly under the Necromancers control. After his father’s death, Zehir was elected First of the Circle and therefore ruler of what was left of the Silver Cities. Zehir wanted revenge on Markal for what he had done to his family and his homeland so he started to take back the cities Markal had conquered. It started well after young Zehir had taken the city of Kadashman which was relatively easy as Markal only had left smaller garrisons to guard the area as he was busy fighting the Elves in Irollan and the Demons. With enough troops at his command, Zehir could liberate the rest of the cities on the mainland and locating ancient lore of Sar-Elam to expand his knowledge and attributes. Zehir managed to take back the capital of the Silver Cities, Al Safir, and then moved on to the surrounding area and retook Lorekeep. He also seized the newly founded city of Newpost which was a smaller settlement and was built as outpost during Isabel’s and Markal’s invasion. Zehir had liberated all of the Silver Cities and purged all of the Necromancers corruption in the kingdom. Only a short time later a messenger arrived, named Galan, with words from Irollan and Tieru, a now deceased Dragon Knight. Galan told Zehir of Tieru’s knowledge of the plot of Kha-Beleth who had used the 4th Blood Moon Eclipse to mark Isabel as a child as the mother of the Demon Messiah. Zehir hurried and together with the Elves led by Findan, Humans led by Godric and the Dark Elves led by Raelag to save and hide Isabel from Kha-Beleth. Together they managed to defeat the Demon Sovereign after he had managed to take Isabel to Sheogh and she had given birth to the Demon Messiah. Worried that Isabel had been tainted by the event, Findan requested that she would stay in Sheogh but Zehir took them to the Silver Cities were they could restrain Queen Isabel if necessary. Category:Nations of Ashan